Chapter 263: Ji Si Ti Si
"My dear, congratulations." Outside the Yun family's grand mansion, Yue Yu teleported beside Yun Jie, who had just returned from a meeting, and hugged the man before her, then kissed him.
The grand mansion was festooned with lanterns and streamers, celebrating its master, and everyone looked radiant with joy.
For Yun Jie, barely thirty years old this year, to climb to the pinnacle of power in such a vast nation was utterly unimaginable a decade ago.
But in the eight years since the Spirit River Autumn, stranger things had already occurred. Young people ascending to high positions without relying on their fathers' influence was no longer a novelty. All of this constantly proved one fact to people: power was the ultimate answer in the new era.
As far back as seven years ago, upon their return from Rome, Yun Jie and Yue Yu had already progressed from playful bickering to exchanging glances, and after a two-year-plus courtship, they finally entered the halls of matrimony.
It wasn't because their relationship was poor that they delayed; it was simply because Yue Yu was just over fifteen at the time, and Yun Jie decided to wait until she turned eighteen before marrying her...
Authority, beauty, wealth, power—everything countless people strove for their entire lives without obtaining, he had already acquired.
Holding Yue Yu in his arms, he looked up at the sky, at the starlit expanse, and suddenly felt a sense of melancholy and loss. He always felt as if something was still missing.
"What's wrong?" Yue Yu asked, looking at the dazed Yun Jie before her.
"My dear, you're overthinking it." She rubbed Yun Jie's face.
"A few days ago, I spoke with Sister Ye," Yun Jie said slowly. "We talked about why she chose to leave."
"Right, I was wondering too. Out of nowhere, she suddenly became melancholic and just gave up."
"She said that only when she sat in this position, when she truly began to govern this nation, did she discover the countless dark corners within it. Every day, unsettling things happen, and even if she spent all her time and energy trying to rectify each one, she couldn't change even a tenth of them."
"She didn't possess Chen Bo's ruthlessness, nor could she, like a true ruler, disregard the vast majority of these issues, paying no mind to them as long as they didn't jeopardize the nation's stability."
"'I have the power to change every single thing here. With just a word from me, things will certainly develop in the direction I desire. No matter what their background, the villains in my eyes will surely be punished. But even merely trying to review all the events that happen daily across the entire Hua-Ya Federation is a luxury!' That's what she ultimately said."
"She felt tired, that she wasn't suited to managing this colossal nation. So, she handed this conundrum to Liang Gong and me to ponder over."
"But why didn't she let her subordinates handle it?"
"Xiao Yu, our subordinates are also human. Not everyone is like us, completely unconcerned with money. A large portion of these issues, in fact, are arguably created by them because of money."
"If we see something we don't like, chopping off one can work, chopping off two can work. But over time, those below will become alienated and lose their loyalty. As a leader who doesn't lack money, I can be righteous and unyielding, but subordinates eager to amass wealth certainly won't tolerate it."
"They wouldn't dare openly oppose me, but things like dragging their feet would be hard to avoid."
As he spoke, Yun Jie suddenly understood Ye Zi's sense of powerlessness. Even with their strength, capable of leveling cities and destroying fortresses, allowing one person to rival an entire nation, they could only choose to compromise with the prevailing atmosphere of the entire environment.
"Perhaps only a method like Hou Zi's can ultimately solve this problem?"
At this moment, in Southern Africa, a small nation known locally as Ji Si Ti Si had appeared. Throughout this country, a faint, dark red mist permeated everything.
Strangely, however, the red mist always remained within Ji Si Ti Si's borders, never drifting beyond them.
Everyone who crossed through the mist and entered this country received a message detailing all the rules to be observed within its borders.
Citizens residing within would also tirelessly remind newcomers, repeatedly, that these regulations absolutely had to be followed, lest they incur divine punishment.
The red mist here, like heavenly will, punished every single person who violated the rules it had set.
It was precisely because of this that, in Africa—now ravaged by war, with laws and morals crumbling, resembling an apocalyptic era—this small nation became a haven for many who yearned for a stable life.
Every day, people would travel thousands of miles, risking their lives, dragging their families with them to flee into this land, solely to seek a secure existence. Where the red mist lay, there the law took effect.
No additional enforcers were needed, no court judgments. Within ten seconds, the mist would complete everything.
Anyone attempting to violate the rules and commit evil on this land would, depending on the severity of the offense, have part or all of their body devoured by the red mist, and then be expelled from the place.
Aside from shrouding the sky and blocking some sunlight, the red mist was completely harmless to ordinary people. Compared to brutal warlords and bandits, what did a little mist that didn't affect one's health even matter?
Within this small nation, covering an area of less than two thousand square kilometers, there was also a government and officials to manage it. However, all oversight authority rested within the red mist. The slightest transgression would lead to the same fate as anyone else who violated the rules.
It wasn't that no one had thought of revenge or resistance. Surrounding warlords had, to varying degrees, lost subordinates within the red mist.
But only after they organized several leaders, both major and minor, from the Unmelting Realm to launch a joint attack, attempting to coordinate with Ji Si Ti Si's internal traitors, did they truly understand despair.
With just one gaping maw, the red mist completely swallowed the attacking force of over a thousand people, not even spitting out a single bone. Everyone vanished entirely from this world.
From then on, the hundred-kilometer radius around the nation of Ji Si Ti Si became a forbidden zone for all warlords.
The true form of the red mist was Hou Zi himself, who had come to Africa alone, intending to establish the nation of justice he envisioned in his mind.
He had completely transformed his Xuanhua, combining it with his Devouring Spirit Hub. Sacrificing formidable defensive power, it became a mist spreading over thousands of square kilometers.
After nearly a year of other arrangements, he finally established this city-state-sized nation.
As a cost, his true body could only remain fixed in one spot in the city center and could not move until the red mist was dispelled.
Regarding this peculiar phenomenon, various great nations successively dispatched investigation teams to examine the situation. However, after confirming it was the work of a certain Xuanhua Stage ability user, they unanimously decided not to interfere further.
For a Xuanhua Stage master to take two thousand square kilometers from the African continent, an area exceeding thirty million square kilometers, to conduct an experiment was simply not an issue.
Even the Hua-Ya Federation, which had been relentlessly pursuing Hou Zi, ultimately chose to reconcile after learning that he had advanced to the Xuanhua Stage.
This was simply because Xuanhua Stage individuals were exceedingly difficult to kill. If they truly fought to the bitter end, many cities might already be in ruins, making it not worth the cost.
In any case, this turbulent continent, with the exception of a few nations maintaining independence through powerful rulers, had seen many of its areas become testing grounds and raw material sources for the major powers. Accommodating another experimental plot was no problem at all.
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